It didn't get as much attention as I think it merited when the Chicago Bears' general manager said recently the team would not be giving out contract extensions to any players during the season.

The Bears have sent a clear message to Jay Cutler: You need to prove yourself to get paid. (AP Photo)

He might as well have just said: "Jay Cutler has to prove it to me and the new coach before we cough up the dough and commit long term" because that was clearly the message that was sent to Cutler and the entire organization.

There had been reports that the club was considering beginning talks with Cutler and giving him a new deal in what has become the offseason of quarterback megaextensions, with Joe Flacco, Aaron Rodgers, Tony Romo and most recently Matt Ryan getting in on the act. It would be understandable. Cutler is the most talented—and some would argue best—quarterback that the Bears have had in quite some time. Like Sid Luckman time.

Normally I would recommend that a franchise like the Bears sign a triggerman that is clearly in the top half of the league in his prime now because if you don't have a guy like that in the NFL these days you don't have a shot, and the Bears understand that as much as anyone. Why delay the inevitable when you know you are unlikely to be able to get anybody better?

With Cutler, however, I say hold the phone. That's evidently what new coach Marc Trestman did, pumping the brakes on committing to Cutler before he had even taken a meaningful snap under his tutelage. You can't blame Trestman, can you?

Cutler has had issues with his last four offensive play-callers, starting with Josh McDaniels and ending with Mike Tice—and with pit stops in between with Ron Turner and Mike Martz. He hasn't gotten along with any of them. Maybe that can be explained, you say? McDaniels wanted to trade him, Turner took away his scholarship offer in college, Martz isn't an easy guy to work with, and Tice was in over his head.

I'm not sure I agree with that, but I'll give it to you. Fine. But the excuses stop now.

Trestman is something of a quarterback whisperer, and every guy he has worked with from Bernie Kosar to Rich Gannon to Scott Mitchell swears by the guy. They love him.

If Cutler goes 0-5 and can't get along with Trestman, whose quarterback relationship record is spotless, there will be no more plausible excuses for the mercurial gunslinger.